The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor memory, and more particularly to a memory system including a nonvolatile memory and a memory controller and a method of programming data at the nonvolatile memory.
A semiconductor memory device may be fabricated using semiconductors such as, but not limited to, silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), and the like. Semiconductor memory devices may be classified into volatile memory devices and nonvolatile memory devices.
The volatile memory devices may lose contents stored therein at power-off. The volatile memory devices include a static RAM (SRAM), a dynamic RAM (DRAM), a synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), and the like. The nonvolatile memory devices may retain stored contents even at power-off. The nonvolatile memory devices include a read only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable and programmable ROM (EEPROM), a flash memory device, a phase-change RAM (PRAM), a magnetic RAM (MRAM), a resistive RAM (RRAM), a ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), and the like.
Electronic devices, such as, but not limited to, a computer, a smart phone, and a smart pad may use semiconductor memories. As the size of contents used in an electronic device increases, there increases the number of operations of programming data in the semiconductor memory under a control of the electronic device. For example, an image file may be stored in the semiconductor memory through one program operation, but a mass moving picture file may be stored in the semiconductor memory through a plurality of program operations. As the number of program operations increases, an operating speed of the semiconductor memory may depend on a delay time between program operations. Thus, a technique for reducing a delay time between program operations may be desired.